New Look 6407: A new skill in the arsenal and a valuable lesson learned

My most recent make is a New Look 6407 in a purple floral shirting I bought in India.  Believe it or not, it was a men's shirting fabric.  I miss that about India: men can wear florals and everyone wears pink.  The fabric was a nice quality cotton which presses beautifully.  I am proud to say that I have been making good progress on improving my fitting. 



 

 

My Adjustments:

• I cut a size 14 and did a 1" FBA. 
• Narrow back adjustment
• Raised waistline up 1"
• Shortened the bottom of the back darts
• Made sleeve wider at the bicep (I did this before learning that I have been doing it incorrectly. Sigh)

 

 

The pattern only has cap sleeves or 3/4 length sleeves.  I lengthened mine to full length and added a cuff from Kwik Sew 3555 and then I did and learned something NEW!  I made a sleeve placket!  I used this article from Threads magazine.  It wasn't difficult and gave a really nice result.  I will use this technique over and over!

Orange kitty checking out my awesome placket

 

I had buttons in my stash that were absolutely perfect!!

 

I learned one more important thing while making this pattern.  When printing a pdf pattern, I try to save ink by only printing out the pages I need.  The lesson learned is this: when using a .pdf pattern, always make sure you have the entire pattern piece and that no little bits are hiding on the next column.  When trying to attach the facing to the fronts, they weren't lining up.  I was a little confused and initially assumed that I had traced the wrong size for the facing piece.  Nope.  Lo and behold, about an inch of the front pattern piece was located on the next column of printouts which I didn't notice.  I had cut both fronts too narrow!  It wasn't going to fit!!  I did not have enough fabric to recut the fronts so I added that narrow missing strip of fabric to each front.  Thankfully the small and busy print hides this little goof extra seam extremely well.  Truly, you'd have to have your nose up to the buttons to notice it.  If that were to happen, in the words of my mother "Meigan, if anyone gets that close to you, kick them!" 

I love this pattern and can envision many more versions in the future.